Tuesday, October 6, 2009

The latest from the Community Schools Alliance, as reported by the London Free Press' Deb Van Brenk, is to form-letter e-mail flood MPPs across the province, going on the theory that the squeakiest wheel gets the grease.

The alliance sent e-mails yesterday morning to all elected municipal officials.
The "Dear MPP" letter template says in part that, "the current system for determining which schools stay open and which schools are closed is a flawed process and school boards are closing schools, amalgamating schools, transporting students out of their community, and building new schools without reviewing the impact of these decisions on our communities."
It goes on to say that a joint process among school boards and municipalities is needed to address issues of declining enrolment and funding to schools in rural and small communities.
But school boards maintain the communities already have plenty of input into decision-making in the accommodation review committee process set out by the province.

Indeed, many municipalities did have plenty of time and some opportunity to contribute their opinions and solutions to many of the schools whose closure they continue to oppose. The Middlesex County municipalities are among these and should be commended for the work they did in the two reviews whose final reports I read and whose presentation to trustees I sat through. Trustees didn't follow the recommendations these municipalities helped develop.
While in this story CSA chair and Southwest Middlesex Mayor Doug Reycraft speaks about a York Region school closure, I'm still waiting for that ever-elusive list of the municipalities who returned the alliance's request for membership over the summer months. Come to think of it, I'm also still waiting for a letter sent from the City of London to the alliance in regards to that very request.